The invention relates to a hardware module for incorporating electronic units into an ad-hoc network.
It is known that networks are nowadays generally administered centrally. If a new network element is added, then it is necessary to ensure that it “agrees” with the already existing network elements, that is to say that it has the correct interface to the network and has the correct drivers. One step in developing the networks is therefore further development of “plug & play” in the form of “ad-hoc networks”. A description of this novel network type, which is certain to become increasing significant in the future, can be found, by way of example, in the article “Geistreiche Verbindungen, Intelligente Geräte in dezentralen Netzen”. One specific form of an ad-hoc network is the Jini™, whose architecture and mechanisms are described in the technical white paper “Jini™ Architectural Overview” from Sun Microsystems. The content of the disclosure of this publication, particularly with respect to the development of Jini™ Middleware, is hereby included in the content of the disclosure of this application.
Ad-hoc networks, such as the Jini™ one, are distinguished in that network elements, and hence also the services they provide, can be added to a network and removed therefrom again as desired.
In this context, services are understood generally to mean an entity which can be used by a person, by a program or by another service. They can be hardware, software, filters, a communications channel, storage space and much more. To perform a commission, many individual services may be needed.
Central control is undertaken by “blackboards”. Network elements can notify the blackboard of their existence and of their capabilities and can search for services which can afford capabilities. For using the services, a leasing mechanism is provided; in this case, a period of use is arranged between the entities involved, after whose expiry the resources of the service used are released again.
Services can communicate using Java Remote Method Invocation (RMI).
The problem of the prior art is now that, although common items of hardware, such as PDAs, digital cameras, notebooks or mobiles, generally have external interfaces, they are not able to process the Jini mechanisms and hence also cannot be readily incorporated into local area ad-hoc networks.